The data from
the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for
unemployment reduced last week to the lowest level since the U.S. economy went
into lockdown made to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but still remained evaluated.
According to the
report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1,542,000 for the
week ended June 6. That brings the number of job losses over the past twelve
weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to more than
44.2 million.
Economists had
expected 1,550,000 new claims last week.
Claims for the
prior week were revised upwardly to 1,897,000 from the initial estimate of 1,877,000.
Meanwhile, the
four-week moving average of claims fell to 2,002,000 from a revised 2,288,250
in the previous week.